From someone who has suffered with anxiety for the last 10 years, I'm well used to people misunderstanding what is going on inside my head. It can get incredibly frustrating when the people closest to you simply think you're just a bit nervous or stressed. The truth is, anxiety is NOT stress and although the symptoms of stress and anxiety can be similar, there's one hell of a big difference.
I know that a lot of people who struggle with anxiety feel incredibly alone and isolated, which can only add to a persons level of anxiety. It's important that an anxiety sufferer has a strong support team around them who completely understands their mental health disorder and can help them through it.  

Despite the increase in campaigning and raising of awareness, I still think that anxiety (and other mental health disorders) are misunderstood and more people need to be educated on how to support those around them. You need to be attentive and patient, but most of all, you mustn't say any of the below statements.



"Calm down"  
This is probably the worst thing you could say to an anxiety sufferer. Do you not think that they would 'calm down' or relax if they could? Anxiety is not a choice. Sometimes it's virtually impossible to be calm once the anxiety begins to creep in.

"Everything will be alright" 
Will it? Will it really? How can you be so sure? Anxiety is entirely irrational so an anxiety sufferer may not even believe you. A person with anxiety may not be comforted in the same way as someone without anxiety. Instead, say something like 'I'm here for you if you need me'.

"It's all in your head"
This is incredibly patronising and I can't remember the amount of times I've asked myself 'what's wrong with me?' over and over. If a person could control their anxiety, then they would, wouldn't they? Anxiety is a real thing...it's a real mental health disorder so don't tell someone that the awful thoughts and feelings that they're having aren't even real.

"There are people who are worse off than you"
This may very well be true, but you should never, ever compare one person's suffering to another person's suffering. Believe me, when you have anxiety you feel like you're the only person in the world who feels as crap as you do. Even though anxiety - or any other mental health disorder for that matter - appears invisible from the outside, it can ruin just as many lives as a 'physical' illness can.

I usually tend to keep my experience of/beliefs about anxiety to myself as I'm not the best at speaking about it so I hope that this post was easy enough to understand.

Let me know what you think!